Letting go: Family of double homicide victims set hope for closure aside

BY SHELLY CONLONMirror staff writer

Saturday

Apr 12, 2014 at 12:01 AMSep 22, 2015 at 2:23 PM

EDITOR’S NOTE: To bring more awareness to the 20th anniversary of an unsolved double homicide, the Waxahachie Daily Light and the Midlothian Mirror are presenting a four-part series on the history of the case to answer why it has been so difficult to close. A story will publish in each Sunday edition of the Daily and Wednesday in the Mirror. This is the fourth article of four.

• Fourth and final in a series

Kevin and Cheryl Roberts, along with family and friends, have spent the last 20 years in heartache, hoping for closure in the double homicide case of Cheryl’s mother Robbie Biggar and their son Kasey Roberts.

Yet, with no statute of limitations on how long a homicide case can remain open, and still no answers, the family and law enforcement has had to accept that the case may never be closed.

“I know I have come to grips that it might never be solved here,” Cheryl said. “I know I’ve come to grips that one day they will have their judgment day, and that’s kind of how I’ve had to go on, because it will eat at you. I could go on grieving, but that’s not what either of them would want.”

On March 19, 1994, Biggar, a former Lancaster resident, was reported missing. A day later, her grandson, Kasey, was found in a car in front of a Red Oak apartment complex, deceased from heat exhaustion, affidavits stated.

Two days later, on March 22, 1994, Biggar was found on the side of an Ellis County road, on the grounds of what was the Superconducting Super Collider. The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Biggar died of blunt force trauma to the head, and both as homicides.

More than four law enforcement agencies investigated the case. However, leads in what was ruled as a double homicide began to fade three days later, a 1994 Waxahachie Daily Light article stated.

Investigators remained confident they would crack the case, according to previous Daily Light articles. Yet, it wouldn’t be until 2009, that the lead agency on the investigation would make an arrest.

The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office arrested Biggar’s boyfriend at the time, Larry Samples, and Galen Boyd, an acquaintance of Samples', previous Daily Light articles stated.

Yet, when the Ellis County District Attorney at the time ruled in 2010 there wasn’t enough concrete evidence to indict the two men, they were released.

“If I had a magic wand that I could wave and get the closure for the family, and not just me, but I think anybody in law enforcement, would want to do that,” Dennis Brearley, Ellis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy said. “It affects the family, and it also affects the law enforcement working it, in a different way.”

Because of that lack of physical evidence, and possibly mistakes made by law enforcement in the early investigation, the double homicide remains open to this day, almost 20 years and a month later. The Waxahachie Daily Light did try to reach out to Samples multiple times, but received no response. The Waxahachie Daily Light also did not find Boyd at his last known address.

“There are no words; I had the bond cut on me on both sides. You always expect to bury your parents, not at that age, but I was only 23 when this happened,” Cheryl said.

Kevin and Cheryl went through counseling together to help cope with the loss, they prayed and they clung to each other for support, they said. However, for the first five years, Kevin, who was a police officer in Mabank at the time, and still is, said he kept his head down because at one point police and media sought him as a person of interest. That was one of the most frustrating parts, especially as an officer on-duty in Mabank at the time Biggar and Kasey were killed, he said.

He hasn’t even had the chance to grieve, and when he tries, it only makes him mad, he said.

“It’s been so long, I really haven’t,” Kevin said. “Our whole life’s been just screwed up over the whole deal. We were young, hadn’t been married long, it was our first kid. We lucked into getting somewhat of a lake house, and we were going to raise our family and live happily ever after. I’ll never be the same.”

Now Cheryl and Kevin look at their three children, and their grandchild, and wonder how they managed to get through it all, they said.

“There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think of both of them,” Cheryl said, crying. “I see parts of Kasey in all of them. I know I truly believe they’re watching over us. I think Kasey is watching over his brothers. I can remember my oldest son, sitting in his room when he was about 2 years old. He was in the room that Kasey was going to have when we moved in, and he was just sitting there talking away, and he said he was talking to his brother. He didn’t even know anything about it at that time.”

Every time she starts to feel really down about the case, Cheryl said she’ll go into the bathroom, a bathroom Biggar has never been in, and strong waves of her mother’s perfume will hit her in the face.

“It’s like she’s with me,” Cheryl, said crying. “She’s never left.”

On this year’s anniversary, the couple said they stayed busy.

“We’ve got two awesome boys now,” Kevin said, crying. “We’ve got one in college, and one that’s playing select baseball, ranked No. 1 in the nation. You know, all that’s awesome and it’s really, really good and it keeps you occupied and it keeps your mind occupied, but it still doesn’t erase the fact that this s--- happened, and nobody has done anything about it.”

“It still doesn’t erase the hole,” Cheryl added.

There haven’t been any new leads on the case for a while, but the lead law enforcement agency on the case, the Ellis County Sherif’s Office, is still open to working any new, workable leads to bring closer to the family, said current lead investigator Joe Fitzgerald. A lack of unequivocal-corroborating leads is what Fitzgerald said he thought the reason was behind why the case has been open for so long. Currently, the sheriff’s office has nine unsolved homicides, all at or before 2001, said Brearley. Brearley is the one Fitzgerald updates on cases.

Since Sheriff Johnny Brown took office in 2009, Brearley said there have been no unsolved homicides on Brown’s watch.

“Every case is different,” Fitzgerald said, about how often the office faces a case where there’s information, but a lack of physical evidence. “Some investigators have abundant amounts of evidence and some do not. There is no set percentage or number to the amount of evidence or lack thereof, in investigations.”

The only evidence the office has, Brearley said, is what was originally collected at the crime scene in 1994. That evidence was also re-tested in 2001 for any possible DNA, and nothing was found. Brearley also said the current district attorney Patrick Wilson looked at the case to see if anything could be done, but had the same evaluation as the district attorney before—there’s just not enough concrete evidence there to move forward with an indictment.

“And at this point, I don’t want him to make a case,” Cheryl said about the district attorney. “Because he doesn’t believe in it. You have to have somebody that is going to believe in it to sell it to a jury.”

Fitzgerald said there’s always hope when it comes to closing a case, but it’s going to take indisputable, corroborating evidence beyond reasonable doubt to close this one.

“I think I’ll always be hopeful, however, I’m very realistic. I feel like the window of opportunity is very narrow now,” said Ann Gipson, Biggar’s friend of 15 years. “Too much time is passed. It would take total dedication to this case to sort through everything, even though some of it's missing or destroyed. I don’t see how it could be (closed), but there are miracles. In the end, I know they’ll get their punishment, but some of us want to see it.”

For anyone who thinks they may have any information on the case of Biggar and Kasey, please contact investigator Fitzgerald at 972-825-4928.

“I’ve been miserable, and I could’ve lived the last 20 years angry, bitter and resentful, but I can’t do that. I have a family. I’m not going to give Larry any more credit of taking anything else out of my life. He took two of the most important things. He’s not getting another d--- thing from me.”

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